Blade arrangements for meat cutters

ABSTRACT

A meat cutter head comprises a plurality of pairs of axially successively arranged pairs of meat cutter blades mounted on a driveshaft. The blades of each pair are angularly spaced by 180* and are in axially successive relationship. The angular spacing between initial and immediately subsequent pairs of blades is greater than the common angular spacing between the respective succeeding pairs of blades. Spacer discs may be inserted between the blades of the first pair of also between the succeeding pairs of blades, as room permits.

Unite Sttes Steffens i5 atent [1 1 1 Mar. 18, 1975 BLADE ARRANGEMENTS FOR MEAT CUTTERS [76] Inventor: G. Walter Steffens, Unterholter Strasse 60, 5630 Remscheid, Germany [22] Filed: June 25, 1973 [21] Appl. N0.: 372,954

[301 Foreign Application Priority Data Mar. 6, 1973 Germany 2310997 [52] U.S. Cl. 241/2821, 241/2921 [51] Int. Cl. ..B02c18/14, B02c 18/18 158] Field of Search 241/2821, 282.2, 291, 241/2921; 83/664 1561 References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 1,279,103 9/1918 Griese 83/664 X 2,864,420 12/1958 Schmidt 241/2821 2,963,062 12/1960 Hughes 83/664 3,330,317 7/1967 Schaller....v 241/2822 3,730,363 5/1973 Karpf 241/2821 Primary Examiner-Granville Y. Custer, Jr. Assistant E.raminer-Howard N. Goldberg Attorney, Agent, or Firm-Burns, Doane, Swecker & Mathis [57] ABSTRACT A meat cutter head comprises a plurality of pairs of axially successively arranged pairs of meat cutter blades mounted on a driveshaft. The blades of each pair are angularly spaced by 180 and are in axially successive relationship. The angular spacing between initial and immediately subsequent pairs of blades is greater than the common angular spacing between the respective succeeding pairs of blades. Spacer discs may be inserted between the blades of the first pair of also between the succeeding pairs of blades, as room permits.

7 Claims, 2 Drawing Figures BLADE ARRANGEMENTS FOR MEAT CUTTIERS BACKGROUND AND OBJECTS OF THE INVENTION The invention relates to an inserted blade for cutters of the meat processing industry consisting of pairs of blades or knives mounted on a profile shaft, whereby each pair is constituted by two axially successively disposed blades, displaced by 180 in relation to one another, between the blades possibly spacer discs are seated and the angular distances of axially successive pairs of blades are the same and/or different.

A multiplicity of arrangements of cutter blades for the formation of a meat cutter head have already been known. Thus, cutter blades are known whose shanks are toothed on one side or on both sides and which are engaged with a corresponding counter toothing on the cheeks of a driving disc. These blades can be positioned, in the ease ofarrangement of these driving discs on a hexagonal profile shaft, at an angular distance of 180 as a pair of blades, or at an angular distance of 120 as a star" of blades to preserve the static and dynamic equilibrium. The individual blades in this case are at an axial distance from one another, whereby this distance is determined by the width of the driving discs and possibly by spacers disposed between said driving discs. The cutter head is mounted on the profile shaft of the driving aggregate and is disposed such, that the profile shaft stands essentially perpendicularly to a vertical diametral plane of the half-torusshaped tray of the cutter. Since the cutter head extends axially on both sides of this diametral plane and a distance between the blades and the bottom of the tray, between 1.5 and 3 mm, is to be maintained, the lengths of the blades of the cutter head are adapted to the curve of the tray by proper adjustments. One can see that the range is limited. within which the blades can be arranged in this manner on the profile shaft. Moreover many machines have a very short profile shaft in order to achieve a quiet running. That means that the number of blades constituting a cutter head is also limited. In

addition. an upper limit of the r.p.m. cannot be exceeded for reasons of construction and because of the material. That means that the performance, i.e., the quantity of processed meat per unit of time, for achieving a certain fine comminution and emulsification while avoiding too high heating for each predetermined tray volume, is limited.

The objective on which the invention is based consists in creating a cutter head of the initially described type which. despite these known limits permits a further increase in performance.

BRIEF SUMMARY OF A PREFERRED EMBODIMENT OF THE INVENTION According to the invention, this objective will be 8, which spacer however Whenever the length of the blade-receiving piece of the profile shaft will permit, a spacer will likewise be placed effectively between the third and fourth pair of knives.

The width of the spacer disc is to preferably correspond at least to the width of the blade mount.

An angular distance of 40 to between the first and the second pair of blades has proved to be favorable.

A particularly favorable development of the cutter head will be obtained when using five pairs knives, whereby the angular distance between the first and the second pair of blades amounts to 60 and the angular distances between the remaining axially succeeding pairs of blades, therefore between the second and the third, the third and the fourth as well as the fourth and the fifth pair of blades amount to 30.

DRAWINGS.

The invention will be explained in more detail on the basis of the attached drawing, by way of example.

FIG. 1 shows a front, simplified view of an embodiment of a cutter head according to the invention.

FIG. 2 shows schematically the axial arrangement of the blades of the cutter of FIG. 1, with parts removed for clarity.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT The cutter head shown in the figures is built up as follows: The hexagonal profile shaft 23 projects from the conventional driving aggregate into the cutting range of the torus-shaped tray 20. The shaft includes a stop surface 21 on the meat-insert side, against which a stop disc 18 fits upon being slid onto the profile shaft. A blade or knife 1 fits against the stop disc 18. This knife is mounted to the shaft 23 in the same manner as blade 10 (FIG. I), that is by means of toothing 26 in the op posed checks of a driving disk 25 which is'mounted fixedly for rotation on the profile shaft. The remaining blades are mounted in the same way. The driving discs 25 and their associated blades are shown schematically as a unit in FIGS. 2 for clarity.

A spacer 11 fits against the driving disc holding the blade 1. This spacer is followed axially by a blade 2 with its driving disc. As can be seen from FIG. 1, the blade 1 and the blade 2 are angularly displaced by in relation to one another. The blade 1 and the table 2 constitute the first pair of blades.

A blade 3, which is separated from blade 2 by a spacer l2, is displaced by an angle of 60 in relation to blade 1. This displacement takes place in the rotational direction of the cutter head, therefore counter clockwise as viewed in FIG. 1. The blade 3 is succeeded directly by blade 4, displaced by 180 in relation to blade 3, whereby the blade 3 and the blade 4 coir stitute the second pair of knives. Therefore, blade 4 has an angular distance to blade 2 of the first pair of blades, likewise of 60.

A spacer 13 is disposed between the blade 4 and the blade 5. Blade 6 follows immediately after blade 5, whereby blade 5 and blade 6 constitute the third pair of knives. The angle between the blade 3 and blade 5, or the blade 4 and the blade 6, amounts to 30.

In case of the preferred embodiment shown as an example, a spacer 14 is provided between the third and the fourth pair of knives consisting of the blades 7 and can be omitted in case of 3 shorter profile shafts. The angular distance between the blade 7 and the blade 5, or the blade 8 and the blade 6, each time amounts to 30.

The same angular distance is provided in case of blades 9 and 10 of the fifth pair of blades disposed directly following the fourth pair of blades. The cutter head, thus constituted by the five pairs of blades, is held against the stop surface 21 by means of a spacer 19 and a head nut 22. The head nut 22 and the stop disc 19 are omitted in FIG. 1. The head nut 22 is seated on a threaded part 24 of the profile shaft 23.

ADVANTAGES AND SCOPE OF THE INVENTION Investigations have shown that in case of increasing the number of blades of a cutter head from six to nine, i.e, in case of a 50% increase in the number of blades, a performance increase of only 20 and 25 percent will be achieved. However, if one uses a cutter head according to the invention with ten blades instead of a cutter head composed ofnine blades, then the increase with regard to the number of blades amounts to less than 10 percent, while the performance increase should amount to 25 to 30 percent and more.

A comparison of the mode of operation of the cutter head according to the invention with a cutter head in which twelve blades are disposed helically at the same angular distance on a profile shaft, shows that the performance of the cutter head according to the invention is by to percent better. Moreover, in addition to this increase of the quantity of meat process per unit of time according to the invention a more favorable emulsification, a better fine comminution and a lesser heating exists.

In the case of use of six blades in the manner according to the invention one will find, as compared to know types of six-bladed cutter heads, unequivocally an increase in performance, an improvement of the fine comminution and of the emulsification as well as a lower rate of heating.

If one compares the production of hot sausages in a cutter, which on the-one hand is armed with a traditional cutter head having nine blades, and on the other hand one that is armed with a cutter head according to the invention having ten blades, then it turns out that for processing the same quantity at the same r.p.m. of the cutter, the inventive head requires only two thirds of the time which the traditional cutter head requires for processing the same quantity. In addition, it turns out that the granulation is considerably finer and the emulsification is considerably better than with the use of the traditional cutter head. The same unforeseeable effect results in case of the production of raw sausage, whereby the granulation achieved takes place exceedingly evenly and the processing of a certain quantity takes place considerably more rapidly as in the case of use of a traditional cutter head.

Although the invention has been described in connection with a preferred embodiment thereof, it will be appreciated by those skilled in the art that additions, modifications, substitutions and deletions not specifically described may be made without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention as defined in the appended claims.

What is claimed is:

1. In a cutter head for processing meat including a plurality of pairs of meat-cutting blades mounted on a profile shaft, each pair of blades comprising two blades displaced angularly by 180 in relation to one another and disposed in axially succeeding relationship to each other, one axial end of said cutter head defining a meatinsertion end; the improvement comprising:

a first pair of said blades being mounted adjacent the meat-insertion end of the cutter head; a second pair of said blades being mounted in axially and angularly succeeding relation to said first pair of blades; and at least third and fourth pairs of sald blades being mounted in axially and angularly succeeding relationship to said second pair of blades and to each other; the angular spacing between said second and third pairs of blades, and between said third and fourth pairs of blades, being substantially equal;

the angular spacing between said first and second pairs of blades being greater than the angular spacing between said second and third, and third and fourth, pairs of blades; and

the angular spacing between said first and second pairs of blades, said second and third pairs of blades, and said third and fourth pairs of blades totals less than the 180 spacing between said first pair of blades.

2. A meat cutter head according to claim 1 wherein a plurality of spacer discs are respectively disposed between:

the two blades of the first pair of blades,

the first and second pairs of blades, and

the second and third pairs of blades.

3. A meat cutter head according to claim 2 wherein a spacer disc is disposed between the third and fourth pairs of blades.

4. A meat cutter head according to claim 2 further including mounting means carried by said shaft for mounting said blades; and the width of said spacers being at least as great as the width of said mounting means.

5. A meat cutter head according to claim 1 wherein the angular spacing between said first and second pairs of blades is approximately 40 to 6. A meat cutter head according to claim 1 and further including a fifth pair of blades mounted in axially succeeding relation to said fourth pair of blades the angular spacing between said first and second pairs of blades being substantially 60; and the angular spacing between the axially succeeding pairs of blades being 30.

7. A meat cutter head according to claim 1 wherein the angular spacing between said first and second pairs of blades is substantially 60 degrees and the angular spacing between the second and third, and third and fourth, pairs of blades being substantially 30. 

1. In a cutter head for processing meat including a plurality of pairs of meat-cutting blades mounted on a profile shaft, each pair of blades comprising two blades displaced angularly by 180* in relation to one another and disposed in axially succeeding relationship to each other, one axial end of said cutter head defining a meat-insertion end; the improvement comprising: a first pair of said blades being mounted adjacent the meatinsertion end of the cutter head; a second pair of said blades being mounted in axially and angularly succeeding relation to said first pair of blades; and at least third and fourth pairs of sald blades being mounted in axially and angularly succeeding relationship to said second pair of blades and to each other; the angular spacing between said second and third pairs of blades, and between said third and fourth pairs of blades, being sUbstantially equal; the angular spacing between said first and second pairs of blades being greater than the angular spacing between said second and third, and third and fourth, pairs of blades; and the angular spacing between said first and second pairs of blades, said second and third pairs of blades, and said third and fourth pairs of blades totals less than the 180* spacing between said first pair of blades.
 2. A meat cutter head according to claim 1 wherein a plurality of spacer discs are respectively disposed between: the two blades of the first pair of blades, the first and second pairs of blades, and the second and third pairs of blades.
 3. A meat cutter head according to claim 2 wherein a spacer disc is disposed between the third and fourth pairs of blades.
 4. A meat cutter head according to claim 2 further including mounting means carried by said shaft for mounting said blades; and the width of said spacers being at least as great as the width of said mounting means.
 5. A meat cutter head according to claim 1 wherein the angular spacing between said first and second pairs of blades is approximately 40* to 80*.
 6. A meat cutter head according to claim 1 and further including a fifth pair of blades mounted in axially succeeding relation to said fourth pair of blades the angular spacing between said first and second pairs of blades being substantially 60*; and the angular spacing between the axially succeeding pairs of blades being 30*.
 7. A meat cutter head according to claim 1 wherein the angular spacing between said first and second pairs of blades is substantially 60 degrees and the angular spacing between the second and third, and third and fourth, pairs of blades being substantially 30*. 